Digital kids ditch homework for networking

Monday 3 March 2008 14.11 EST
First published on Monday 3 March 2008 14.11 EST

The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Saturday March 8 2008

The article below reported on a survey about the effect of social networks. The survey and article referred to net figures produced by aggregating the survey's results. The article said, for example, "A balance of nearly a third of 15- to 19-year-olds say they are doing less homework, -30% among boys and -32% among girls". Those figures were intended to express the fact that 5% of boys and 1% of girls said social networking increased the time they spend on homework, while 35% of boys and 33% of girls said it decreased the time (5% - 35% = -30%; 1% - 33% = -32%); the remainder in both cases reported no change.

British 15-to-19-year-olds admit spending significantly less time doing homework than they used to as a result of their use of social-networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, according to research published today.

While teachers and parents will be dismayed, the 2008 Digital Entertainment Survey also makes uncomfortable reading for commercial TV executives. It shows that not only does a significant proportion of the important 15- to 19-year-old audience watch less television as a result of social networking, but that the vast majority of Britain's 15-to-54-year-olds fast-forward through adverts when they watch programmes they have recorded.

The report, produced by Entertainment Media Research for media law firm Wiggin, shows the way the internet has changed working, reading and viewing habits.

A balance of -21% of teenage girls and -10% of teenage boys watch less TV than more because they are using social-networking sites. A balance of nearly a third of 15- to 19-year olds say they are doing less homework, -30% among boys and -32% among girls.

The survey also shows the growing "digital divide" between age groups. Whereas 55% of males aged 15 to 19 regularly browse social-networking sites, only 13% of 45-to-54-year-old men do the same.

The growth in usage of digital personal video recorders means TV viewers are increasingly skipping the adverts, with 79% fast-forwarding all or most of the time. In the United States some advertisers have been experimenting with adverts that make sense only when watched in fast forward.

Some of the findings are likely to be welcomed by the industry. The film and music industries have been lobbying to persuade the government that Britain's internet service providers (ISPs) should take a more active role in preventing the illegal downloading and sharing of copyrighted content. The survey shows almost seven out of 10 people who admitted to some form of online piracy believe it is "very unlikely" they will be caught. It also shows that 70% of British 15-to-54-year-olds who have illegally downloaded copyrighted material would not do so again if they got an email or call from their ISP.

Last month the government warned the ISP industry that if they could not come up with a viable industry solution to combat piracy it would look at introducing legislation next year.